So what’s a Chumby?
Nancy White is a speaker, student, inspirational web user and just plain lovely person who travels to fabulous places. So after going to one of her presentations last year, I made her a Flickr contact.
This photo of her and her new toy intrigued me. What IS a Chumby?
It is a small WiFi receive/displayer that allows owners to view the internet 24/7 and costs less than $US200. It takes FOSS to a new level – encouraging people to hack software AND hardware. You can choose what comes up on it — however, it sounds like the manufacturer and partners can put ads and offers out on it too.
Oh, and I think it can act as an alarm clock too? Anyway, here’s the scoop: http://www.chumby.com/story
There is something indescribably fun about the darn thing. Leonard Low is trying to imagine it as an m-learning thingie. (I like technical terms.) Right now it is lovable technology. Purpose is still a bit hazy!
Hackable Hardware is a way cool idea.
If you are interested in what Nancy is doing with her Chumby, you will probably want to follow what Frank Arrigo is doing with/to his:
http://blogs.msdn.com/frankarr/archive/2007/10/29/littlefrankie-arrived.aspx
His twitter http://twitter.com/frankarr is full of chumby isms including the naming ceremony via nick hodge
Fang